The Book of Mormon on Broadway Tickets

By: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Robert Lopez
Songs by: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Robert Lopez
Director: Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker
Choreography: Casey Nicholaw
Producer: Anne Garefino
Cast list: Kevin Clay (as Elder Price), Jordan Matthew Brown (as Elder Cunningham), Keziah John-Paul (as Nabulungi), PJ Adzima (as Elder McKinley), Jacques C. Smith (as Mafala Hatimbi), Lewis Cleale (as Missionary Training Center Voice / Price’s Dad / Joseph Smith / Mission President), Derrick Williams (as General)
Design: Scott Pask
Lighting: Brian MacDevitt
Costume: Ann Roth
Sound: Brian Ronan

In The Book of Mormon musical, Kevin Price is raring to go on a two-year mission to Orlando, Florida. But he’s shocked to be paired with the less-than-popular Arnold Cunningham and instead sent to Uganda, where no missionary has successfully converted anyone. Price is determined to do what no Mormon has done before, but Cunningham connects with the locals best once he starts “Making Things Up Again” on his own.

Technically, you could say the history of The Book of Mormon goes back to 1830, when the Mormon Church was founded. The musical is a little newer. Parker and Stone started working with Lopez in 2003 after seeing his Tony-winning Best Musical Avenue Q. The South Park duo wanted to make a Book of Mormon movie, but Lopez insisted on making a musical.

The show’s first reading was in 2008, and an Off-Broadway world premiere was set for 2010. The producers canceled that production to give the creators more time to refine the show. Premiering The Book of Mormon on Broadway directly was a leap of faith — and it paid off.

The Book of Mormon got 14 Tony nominations and won for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Direction of a Musical, and more. The show also won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, and the London and Melbourne productions won Best Musical at the Olivier and Helpmann Award ceremonies, respectively.

What to watch for

• At one point in developing The Book of Mormon on Broadway, the writers thought about killing off Elder Price at the end of Act 1. However, that idea was quickly scrapped, as killing off the lead character wouldn't work in a musical comedy.
• Robert Lopez, who wrote the music and lyrics, is the youngest EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner in history. Robert Lopez received his second Tony for Best Score for The Book of Mormon, and at age 36, he won his fourth for Best Original Song for “Let It Go” from Frozen. He also became a double EGOT when he won his second Oscar for "Remember Me" from the Disney film Coco.
• Parker, Stone, and Lopez took a trip to Salt Lake City and spoke with real Mormon missionaries as research for the musical. They definitely said "Hello!"
• The song “All-American Prophet” used to be called “The Bible is a Trilogy." The original title is referenced in Elder Cunningham’s line “Wow, so the Bible is actually a trilogy, and the Book of Mormon is Return of the Jedi.”
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took out advertisements in the program with taglines like “You’ve seen the show, now read the book” and “The book is always better.”